Marine Holiday Park in Rhyl is celebrating 20 years under the ownership of the Williams family, marking two decades of welcoming families to the North Wales coast and supporting the area’s visitor economy.
The park was purchased in 2006 by Wyn and Samantha Williams, who set out to create the kind of family holiday destination their own daughters, Paris and Rio, would enjoy.
That family connection remains at the heart of the business today. Paris and Rio now work as group directors within Pario Holiday Parks, helping to lead the business they grew up around.
Rio was just 10 years old when her parents took over Marine Holiday Park and remembers spending her childhood at the park, making friends with visiting families and enjoying the swimming pool, arcade and play areas.
“For any child, it was a dream come true,” she said. “I would be brought to work with my mum and dad and make friends with the holiday guests and owners’ children. We’d be riding bikes around the park or spending time on the playground. It felt like being on holiday every day.”
Twenty years on, Marine Holiday Park continues to attract thousands of visitors each year, offering accommodation, entertainment, leisure facilities and a programme of family activities close to Rhyl’s seafront.
Visitors travel from across the UK, with the park particularly popular with families from Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Stoke, alongside guests travelling from further afield.
For Rio, the appeal of the traditional seaside break remains a major part of the park’s success.
“Nothing really beats a seaside holiday,” she said. “The beach is less than a 15-minute walk away and you can get that holiday feeling within a relatively short journey. Rhyl is also seeing continued investment, giving families even more reasons to visit and enjoy the area.”
Over the past two decades, Marine Holiday Park has also earned recognition through a number of tourism and hospitality awards. These include Holiday Park of the Year at the 2021 Go North Wales Tourism Awards, alongside Booking.com Traveller Review Awards, Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards and a Hoseasons Diamond Award.
To mark its 20th anniversary, the park is planning a weekend of celebrations from 12 to 14 June, with the main event taking place on Saturday 13 June.
The programme will celebrate the traditions of the classic British seaside holiday, with donkey rides, a birthday barbecue, live circus performances, family entertainment, giveaways and other activities throughout the day.
Rio said: “It’s about creating a traditional family day out by the seaside. We want people to get involved and enjoy some of the kinds of activities that families might remember from holidays and promenades years ago.”
From a family-run business established with its own children in mind to a destination now welcoming generations of holidaymakers, Marine Holiday Park’s 20-year milestone demonstrates the enduring role parks can play in supporting tourism destinations and giving families reasons to return to the British seaside.
By attracting thousands of visitors to Rhyl year after year, the park also contributes to the wider visitor economy, helping support the businesses, attractions and communities that make North Wales a popular holiday destination.
This is part of the #ParksMakePlaces campaign, celebrating how holiday parks support people, places and the planet.
